"Place with husband, Betty Molteno needs new world" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Mary Sauer MSC 26/2.11.112 |
Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | 11 October 1897 |
Address From | The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape |
Address To | |
Who To | Mary Sauer nee Cloete |
Other Versions | Rive 1987: 314-15 |
Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections.
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1
The Homestead
2 Oct. 11 / 97
3
4 My darling Mary,
5
6 I am thinking of you so often. I wish you lived here where I could see
7you every day. It struck me last night when I was lying awake last
8night that perhaps you were tossing about as one does when the time
9gets on, & I lay thinking of you hour after hour. If it was possible
10for me to come to Cape Town with out asthma I would come down as Xmas
11just to be near but I shouldn't be any comfort you. You Do just drop
12me one line to say how you are. I am so glad Mrs Innes is near you now.
13
14 Is there any chance of the new paper Mr Sauer spoke of appearing soon?
15I feel almost hope less about South African affairs. A man from the
16Barkley division had supper with us the other night, & the story he
17tells of the bribery going on there would be almost unbelievable if
18one did not know from what is going on elsewhere that it was quite
19true.
20
21 Do you think there is any chance of their turning Sievewright & Co out
22next session? I am not doing anything now except trotting about my
23house getting things straight.
24
25 I have such joy in being back again, though I would rather have spent
26the next six months in Italy.
27
28 Good bye, dear. The little one will perhaps be the great joy of your
29life in years to come.
30 Olive
31
2 Oct. 11 / 97
3
4 My darling Mary,
5
6 I am thinking of you so often. I wish you lived here where I could see
7you every day. It struck me last night when I was lying awake last
8night that perhaps you were tossing about as one does when the time
9gets on, & I lay thinking of you hour after hour. If it was possible
10for me to come to Cape Town with out asthma I would come down as Xmas
11just to be near but I shouldn't be any comfort you. You Do just drop
12me one line to say how you are. I am so glad Mrs Innes is near you now.
13
14 Is there any chance of the new paper Mr Sauer spoke of appearing soon?
15I feel almost hope less about South African affairs. A man from the
16Barkley division had supper with us the other night, & the story he
17tells of the bribery going on there would be almost unbelievable if
18one did not know from what is going on elsewhere that it was quite
19true.
20
21 Do you think there is any chance of their turning Sievewright & Co out
22next session? I am not doing anything now except trotting about my
23house getting things straight.
24
25 I have such joy in being back again, though I would rather have spent
26the next six months in Italy.
27
28 Good bye, dear. The little one will perhaps be the great joy of your
29life in years to come.
30 Olive
31
Notation
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.